Abstract : This paper presents simulations of nonlinear plate vibrations in relation to sound synthesis of gongs and cymbals. The von Kármánequations are shown and then solved in terms of the modes of theassociated linear system. The modal equations obtained constitutea system of nonlinearly coupled Ordinary Differential Equationswhich are completely general as long as the modes of the system are known. A simple second-order time-stepping integrationscheme yields an explicit resolution algorithm with a natural parallel structure. Examples are provided and the results discussed.